DIY Binaural head with minidisc mics.

[jebjerome]

Hi-

I've got a pair of these http://www.reactivesounds.com/am2.php and they sound pretty good. I've clipped them close to my ears and walked around and achieved some very cool near-binaural recordings to minidisc with them. Now I want to mount them in ear positions in a dummy head and use them for studio recording.

I've got the dummy heads, so step 1 is taken care of. But I don't know how to go about getting the mics powered and into my system. Normally the minidisc supplies power.

I imagine I need a special stand alone power supply and then just use an 1/8" to 1/4" or xlr to go into my system. Do they make the power supplies like this? How should I do this? My electronics geekdom is limited to soldering cables so far.

Can one of you wonderful geeks tell me what I need to do this please and any potential dangers (I'm guessing phantom power should be left alone)?

Much appreciated.

Jeb

[tINY]

Telinga Microphones - Plug-in-Power whitepaper



There is a breif explanation. You can still use your minidisk for power if it has a monitor output. You may be able to rig -up a converter and use phantom power.

Or you could get a 9 volt battery and a feed resistor (and maybe a DC blocking cap) and make a bias supply yourself.



-tINY

[jebjerome]

So I suppose the easiest way would be to do this and send the headphone out to the recorder.

[tINY]

No muss, no fuss....

Typically, the 1/8" input on your computer has plug power too.




-tINY

[John Suitcase]

Speaking of binaural heads, does anyone know where to find IRs of binaural recordings, in various positions around the head?

I'd like to be able to position a track behind the listener (or above) for instance, but don't have any way to do it, that I know of.

Be sure to post some examples once you get the head working!


Oh, and the power supply thing:

http://www.prosoundweb.com/recording...mic_16_1.shtml

I suspect this power supply configuration might work, though it'll require batteries. There's another way to do it using a zener diode and whatnot for phantom power, but it's a bit more complicated.

I don't know the voltage of your mics, but I would expect 9 volt to work well enough (most electret type mics can handle that)

[recall]

I got a little thing off ebay for exactly this situation. Its just a powering device with a minijack line out (male)

Can't find it now but I don't think I paid more than £15 for it.

[recall]

Here it is:


http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/LINE-IN-PREAMP...QQcmdZViewItem

I just take a mini jack to stereo rca from this, but I suppose you could make up a minijack to dual mono 1/4" lead

[jebjerome]

Sweet. That's exactly what I need.

[anxious]

Originally Posted by John Suitcase

Speaking of binaural heads, does anyone know where to find IRs of binaural recordings, in various positions around the head?

Sure... what you are looking for is called an "HRTF Database." Here are some examples:

http://interface.cipic.ucdavis.edu/C...F_database.htm

http://www.ais.riec.tohoku.ac.jp/lab/db-hrtf/

http://recherche.ircam.fr/equipes/salles/listen/


-k

www.kenkantor.com